


A Fallen Angel's Consolation

by GalileoSunshine



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Holiday Fic Exchange, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Valentine's Day, dinner date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 14:19:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14916965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalileoSunshine/pseuds/GalileoSunshine
Summary: Yoshiko treats Riko out to dinner, and tries to act the part of the proper girlfriend. And that means - no Yohane.





	A Fallen Angel's Consolation

**Author's Note:**

> This was written to @aisuwa on tumblr as a Valentine's Day make up gift for the Secret Admirers 2018 gift exchange.  
> To aisuwa, I'm sorry that you didn't get your gift! I hope this makeup gift is, as the title suggests, some consolation for you! Enjoy! ^^

Tsushima Yoshiko had never been more on edge in her life.

She was a jittery mess of nerves on the inside, and she fought to not constantly fidget with her hands or fix her hair or sigh. All of it was because of what she had planned for this evening with her girlfriend, a certain senior with red hair and a passion for playing piano.

It wasn’t that their evening’s plans involved anything out of the ordinary. It was just a Valentine’s day dinner at a restaurant. Granted, the restaurant was rather upscale, located on Awashima Island, served gourmet dishes along with balcony views of Uchiura’s sea, and required a certain dress code and at least a week’s prior reservation. And all of it came at a hefty sum of money.

Ok, it was pretty extravagant. Yoshiko wanted to do something special for their Valentine’s. But besides the fancy dinner, Yoshiko didn’t want anything _else_ be out of the ordinary. And to be specific, she wanted to be herself unassuming – and that meant none of her fallen angel pretenses and speeches about hell or little demons. Absolutely nothing Yohane-related.

She wanted everything to be proper, down-to-earth…because Riko was a proper, down-to-earth kind of girl.

Yoshiko and Riko had only been dating for a couple months. And for that matter, it was the first time Yoshiko had dated anyone, so she had more than a few anxieties about how their relationship was going. She definitely didn’t want to screw this evening up. She wanted Riko to have fun, without having to be embarrassed about her own girlfriend while in public.

And that’s what made her worry. Yoshiko just hoped she could keep her fallen angel side under control.

Yoshiko swallowed down her nervousness as she finally arrived at Riko’s house, pulling her car into the driveway. She gave her makeup and hair a final lookover in the mirror before exiting the car and heading up the path to Riko’s front door.

Before Yoshiko even had a chance to knock, the door opened and Riko stepped out to greet her with an enthusiastic smile.

“Yocchan! You’re here!”

Riko wore a low-high, off shoulder dress, in her namesake’s color of pink, and a small pearl necklace hung around her neck. Her hair was styled with waves, and it was swept to one side and hung over one shoulder. It nearly made Yoshiko forget how to breathe, and for a second, all of her worries were forgotten. But only a second.

“Riri!” Yoshiko said, then quickly bit her tongue. “I-I mean…Riko! You look great!” Yoshiko mentally berated herself for letting herself trip up already. She had to be more careful than she thought, or else she’d unconsciously fall into her habits.

Riko tilted her head slightly, confused at Yoshiko not calling her by her usual nickname, but she quickly put it out of her mind. Their reservation was in thirty minutes, and it wouldn’t look good to be late.

“You look great too, Yocchan,” she returned the compliment. Then she smiled playfully. “I half expected you to be in some gothic getup and your face painted all white, but here you are.”

“Whaaaat?” Yoshiko let out a forced laugh. “I wouldn’t do that!”

“I don’t know…” Riko feigned.

“I wouldn’t! Not for a night like tonight,” Yoshiko said, feeling her cheeks get hot. “And certainly not for the kind of place we’re going to.” Yoshiko didn’t mention that luckily for her, her mom had a spare black dress that fit her, or else she really might be in one of those gothic dresses. But Riko didn’t need to know that.

“I know, I’m joking,” Riko giggled. She stepped out of the doorway and clutched Yoshiko’s arm. “Shall we go?”

Yoshiko gulped at the sudden cool sensation of Riko’s arm against her own. “Ahh, yeah! Let us descend to – I mean! Um…yeah, let’s go.” Mentally berating herself again, Yoshiko led the two of them back to the car.

* * *

It started a week ago, at the shoe lockers after school.

“Hey Riri,” Yoshiko asked nervously, leaning against the wall of lockers. Riko was switching out her shoes as they talked.

“What’s up, Yocchan?” she replied.

“Next week…is Valentine’s, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. What about it?”

Yoshiko’s eyes darted about. “Well…I was wondering…what you wanted to do? I mean I know the tradition is the girl gets chocolate for her boyfriend, or the person she likes, but since we’re both girls…do I, like, give you chocolate, or do you give _me_ chocolate or…I mean, not that either of us is the ‘guy’ in the relationship, but…y’know! Or, um we can both get each other chocolate, or…”

Yoshiko’s head swam as she babbled. Why was it so awkward talking about this stuff? She thought she’d get use to this lovey-dovey stuff after a couple months of dating. But she was still as tongue-tied as ever when she was with Riko.

Riko answered with a laugh. “You’re overthinking it, Yocchan. Just like you said, we can both get each other chocolate. C’mon let’s walk.”

They exited the school building and began their daily walk down the long slope leading up to Uranohoshi, and that led to the bus stop at its end.

“There’s one other thing!” Yoshiko said, calling after Riko.

“What is it?”

“I kinda…wanted to do something special too. Besides just the chocolate.”

“Something special?” Riko echoed, and she hummed in musing.

“Eh? What’s wrong?”

“Well usually when you say ‘special,’ it means some kind of Satanic ritual or something else involving Yohane.”

“Ahh, that’d be nice…wait, no! I don’t mean anything like that!”

Riko wasn’t convinced, however.

“Are you sure?” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t want to be dragged into one of your little demon shenanigans.”

“It’s not that!” Yoshiko replied in a fit of embarrassment. “I was just thinking of going out for a nice dinner? It’d be my treat! My mom was telling me about this fancy new restaurant that opened on Awashima Island. We might be able to get a reservation there. That is, if you want to…”

Yoshiko’s face felt, as she might say, hotter than the flames of hell. And her embarrassment only got worse as Riko stayed silent for the next several seconds, until they stopped walking, having arrived at the bus stop.

Finally, Riko turned toward her and gave an earnest smile. “Yeah, that sounds nice!” As relief flooded through, Yoshiko’s body, Riko stepped closer to the dark-haired girl and planted a small kiss on her cheek. “As long as you don’t make a scene and nothing ends in a public spectacle then, I’d be happy to!”

“G-great!” Yoshiko responded, her heart racing out of control, both from the kiss, and in excitement for the coming week. “I promise you won’t be disappointed!”

* * *

Although Riko probably didn’t mean her words to be taken so seriously, Yoshiko was determined to act the part of the proper girlfriend on this date.

And so, on their ferry ride to Awashima, she didn’t make any comments about crossing the River Styx or entering the realm of Hades, or about the night being as dark as her tainted soul, and she _certainly_ didn’t stand at the helm of the boat, claiming it be her vessel in their journey to the underworld. As much as she wanted to.

Riko found Yoshiko’s demeanor to be strange as well, voicing her concern.

“Are you alright, Yocchan? You seem awfully quiet.”

“Do I?” Yoshiko said back, and Riko raised an eyebrow.

“What’s wrong?”

Nothing was wrong, Yoshiko wanted to say. But she knew that would just make Riko more curious. And the last thing she wanted was for Riko to be worried about _her_ on their date.

What made the entire situation worse was that, whenever she didn’t know how to respond to something, she always had her Yohane persona to fall back on. It made everything easier when she could turn it into a joke. But now she couldn’t even do that.

“I just want you to enjoy yourself,” Yoshiko said instead, with a smile that she hoped would ease Riko’s worry. Then she pointed to the sky, trying to divert attention away from herself. “Look, the stars. Aren’t they pretty?”

“Yeah,” she replied without looking. She only continued to stare at Yoshiko, concerned etched even deeper on her face.

When they arrived on the island, they were ushered to the restaurant, where they claimed their reservation and were seated on an open-air balcony overlooking the Uchiura waters. Off in the distance, they could make out the lighthouse, its beam of light circling around and around. Little lamps were also set adrift in the water below, and combined with the fairy lights that lined the railings, Yoshiko and Riko felt like they were floating among stars.

“Wow, _this_ is beautiful,” Riko said. “I feel like I’m in a dream.” Seeing the enchanted gleam in Riko’s eyes, Yoshiko smiled, perhaps her first genuine smile that night.

Soon, they had their drinks, and were offered menus.

“Geh,” Yoshiko flinched, eyeing the rows and rows of fancy sounding dishes. “I can’t even pronounce half of these!”

Riko giggled. “I think some of these are in French.”

“What? How am I supposed to know what to order? They don’t even have pictures!”

“Maybe we should ask for a children’s menu?”

Yoshiko sputtered. “H-hey! I don’t need a children’s menu!”

“Oh?”

Yoshiko raised her chin up haughtily and made a V-sign in front of her eyes. “The great Yohane has lived ages, _millennia_ , longer than you fellow mortals. She certainly does not require a chil–”

Yoshiko came to an abrupt halt, realizing what she was doing. Her hand came down from her face in an instant.

“O…kay?” Riko said, curious as to why she had stopped. “But I would think that Yohane, having lived so long, would at least be able to read a few foreign languages.”

“Let’s…not bring up Yohane, ok?” Yoshiko said, her face turning red. She quickly looked about the room to make sure no one had seen her. In the fine dining establishment they were in, Yoshiko was afraid she might even get a complaint for making ‘gang’ signs.

Riko furrowed her eyes in confusion. Now she really suspected that something was wrong. But once again, she decided to let it go for the moment, and instead focused back on the menu.

“We could pick at random?” Riko suggested. Despite her teasing, she had to admit that she couldn’t make out most of the food options either.

“Pick at random?” Yoshiko echoed.

“Yeah, my mom and I do it sometimes. It’s kind of fun, to get something completely unexpected.”

“What if we don’t like it?”

“Usually, since we’re getting two dishes, there’s something we can enjoy. We can share that, and ignore whatever we don’t like.”

Yoshiko thought for a second. She looked down again, at the words written on the laminated pages, with all its roman letters in fancy squiggly lines, and the extra vowels and accent marks that made her brain hurt deciphering how to pronounce them.

“Y’know, I like that! Let’s do it, Riri!” Yoshiko said, she really didn’t have any better ideas. And then she realized what she said. “I mean – ! Good idea…Riko.”

“Ok, that’s it.” Riko closed her menu with a loud _thump_ and tossed it on the table. She folded her arms and put on her best ‘stern’ face, making sure to looks Yoshiko square in the eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Wh-! What? Nothing’s wrong! I’m completely okay! What gave you that idea?”

“Well for one, you’re reacting like that.”

Yoshiko flushed.

“You won’t call me Riri, which you _always_ do, even when I tell you not to! And you’ve only cracked one Yohane line this entire evening! You’re acting like… Well, you’re not acting like _you_.”

Yoshiko hid behind her menu. What could she say? She couldn’t deny that everything Riko said was true.

“Sorry…” Yoshiko mumbled out apologetically, and Riko immediately softened. She didn’t mean to yell at her. She was trying to help Yoshiko after all, not make her feel worse. Riko reached across the table and laced her fingers through Yoshiko’s.

“Yocchan,” she said, her voice low and hopefully soothing. “You said you want me to enjoy myself, but I can’t have fun if you’re not having fun either, ok? So tell me what’s wrong.”

Yoshiko set down her menu with her free hand, and took a long intake of breath before letting it out in a sigh.

“Well…you said you didn’t want anything Yohane related tonight, so I was trying to be…y’know, _not_. I was trying to be normal.”

Riko pursed her lips. “Is that all?”

Yoshiko nodded.

“You’re really an idiot, Yocchan.”

“H-huh?”

“I said not to make a public spectacle. You don’t have to completely avoid being Yohane, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“But…”

Yoshiko went silent, her eyes taking on a faraway look, and Riko started to realize that it wasn’t simply a misunderstanding on Yoshiko’s part. The source of Yoshiko’s worry went deeper, farther into her past. And when the girl finally spoke up, her voice was cracked and wavering, a mix of fear and anxiety that spoke of years of being rejected and ridiculed for being Yohane.

“It’s just…I don’t want you to hate me,” Yoshiko said, barely above a whisper. “You’re my first girlfriend, and…you’re the first person who’s accepted me despite…well, everything. And also today’s Valentine’s day, so I wanted you to have a good time, and so…because you made it sound like you didn’t want anything to do with Yohane tonight I…”

Yoshiko trailed off. She probably wasn’t making sense anyways, but more so because she was afraid that she’d start crying if she said any more. Her body was already trembling enough as it is. Riko was also looking at her as though she’d break into a million pieces at the slightest breath. She certainly felt that way.

Yoshiko felt her hand being squeezed.

“Yocchan, I don’t hate you, or your fallen angel stuff. I mean, I don’t like it when you drag me into it or make a scene in public, but I don’t hate you for being _you_.”

Riko sighed. It’d take more than a few words of consolation for scars this deep.

“I love your passion for all the fallen angel stuff, I admire it. And I love how you can just put yourself out there, and unapologetically be yourself. It’s really helped me too, to come out of my shell, and be more assertive. I love all of you, Yocchan, so you don’t need to pretend to be something you’re not, ok? Not with me.”

Yoshiko’s eyes met Riko’s for an instant, and then looked away. And then she looked at Riko again, and the second time, she held her gaze.

“You…mean it?”

“Of course I do.”

Yoshiko squeezed Riko’s hand back, and gave her a shy half smile, pointed tooth and all. “You really are my most loyal little demon, Ri– …Riri.”

Riko’s heart heaved a sigh of relief. She felt that at that moment, the entire evening could’ve ended and their time would’ve been worth it. Normally she’d brush off a comment about her being a little demon, but in that moment, it was the highest praise she could ask for.

Because it wasn’t just praise. It was Yoshiko saying thank you. Thank you for being there for her, for putting up with her, and most of all, for accepting her. And that’s when Riko stumbled upon another realization.

Perhaps that was all Yoshiko was ever asking for, when she invited people to become her little demons.

“Ahem,” a voice called from behind Riko, and they both swiveled their heads toward the source of the sound. “Are you ready to order?” It was their waiter, who had been standing there for who knows how long.

Yoshiko and Riko exchanged glances and smiled knowingly at each other, before Riko turned back to the waiter.

“Yes, we are.”

And as planned, they picked randomly off the menu, pointing at a spot and requesting whatever their fingers landed on.

The rest of the evening passed just as lightheartedly. They chatted about school and recent Aqours activities, laughing at each other’s blunders and swearing to do better. They talked about new songs, even coming up with some new concepts for their subunit. When their orders arrived, and they saw the food sitting on their platters, they had a fun moment of “so that’s what that was!” and enjoyed trying each other’s dishes.

Most of all though, was the feeling of freedom Yoshiko felt. She was more boisterous and “fallen angel” than ever, at one point even trying to perform a summoning by drawing a pentagram with ketchup.

And through it all, she basked in the light of Riko’s eyes, and the warmth of her smile, that told her she was accepted, and that she was loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is my first time writing YoshiRiko, and I had thought I'd never would were it not for this gift exchange, haha. Although it is faaaar from my favorite ship, it was a nice challenge trying to write for it, and to try to understand it a little.


End file.
